With Actual Video: Saudi Woman Defies Driving Ban, Posts “F -You” Vid on YouTube
(AP) -A Saudi woman activist marked this year’s International Women’s Day by defying a ban on women driving in the ultra-conservative kingdom and posted a video of her act on YouTube.
Wajiha Huwaidar, a leading activist in a campaign to allow women to get behind the wheel in the desert kingdom, confirmed to AFP on Sunday that it was her in the video posted on the popular website.
She said she recorded the video while she drove in a deserted area in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia and posted it on the Internet on Saturday to mark International Women’s Day.
In the video, Huwaidar appeared driving calmly as few cars passed by along the almost empty road.
“Women can drive in the countryside. There is no problem with that. Some women do the school run everyday without being obstructed,” she claimed.
“What is important is to allow women to drive in urban areas.”
In September, more than 1,100 Saudi men and women signed a petition to King Abdullah urging him to lift the controversial ban on women driving in the oil-rich kingdom, which applies a strict form of Sharia (Islamic law).
The petition — a brainchild of Huwaidar and other activists — stressed that Islam does not put constraints on women such as the driving ban and points out that women already “drive in villages and remote rural areas.”
A group of 47 women defied the ban on driving by roaming the streets of the capital Riyadh in 15 cars in November 1990. They were swiftly rounded up by police and penalised, while their male guardians were reprimanded.
The following year, a fatwa (religious edict) was issued by the then mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Baz, prohibiting women from driving cars.
Women in the oil-rich Gulf desert kingdom are forced to cover from head to toe in public, and cannot travel without written permission from their male guardian.
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that’s surely not Saudi Arabia in the video countryside ; it looks more like Spain, South of France or Italy
March 9th, 2008 at 11:48 amNext thing we know Islam will be instructing “believers” on Allah-approved toilet etiquette.
March 9th, 2008 at 11:52 amOh wait, they already are.
If a Saudi woman is forbidden to get behind a steering wheel, does that make it easier to pry the cell phone from her grasp?
First they let women ride in the back seat. Then the women learned that they could apply lipstick by using the rear-view mirror. Now they want to drive the friggin things. Where will it end?
Saudi women are the best drivers on the planet. There are ZERO accidents caused by Saudi women (unless you take into account all the fatalities caused by Noura the Pedestrian flashing a spot of ankle while Abdullah is trying to focus on getting the goats to market).
March 9th, 2008 at 12:50 pmfranchie check out the couple on a bench in the background
PhilNBlanx, nice link, I wonder if sheryl crow practices this?
March 9th, 2008 at 1:14 pmyeah, I have seen them, in Spain you could see the kind of men on a bench too ; well I am not expecting Saudi Arabia with red roofs and and houses looking so ; the green nature leaves me perplexe !
March 9th, 2008 at 1:24 pmIf she’s “defying the ban” in the countryside that is “deserted,” she isn’t taking much of a stand. Don’t get me wrong…kudos to her for flipping the shieks a bird, but she’d get more reaction by trying this in downtown Riyadh. Of course, she would only be able to do that once, since either she’d get horsewhipped or land in gaol. Or both. What an oppressive ideology Islam is.
March 9th, 2008 at 4:52 pmSilly people the Saudis, too much money, too few brains.
March 9th, 2008 at 6:21 pmWere it not for American lawyers Standard Oil could have bought the whole of Arabia for a hundred saddles and two Germanic goats.
March 9th, 2008 at 6:39 pmFranchie, this is definitely Saudi Arabia…I lived there 11 miserable years with my husband who worked there that long. There are some areas with greenery, but the flat, brown desert surrounds everything. You should see the big cities…go a few blocks from the perimeter where the buildings end and it’s all flat brown/reddish desert…very primitive. And don’t be fooled, what this woman did was brave because her husband was most likely summoned (her father if she’s not married) and she’s been told to never drive a car again. A few years back a group of Saudi women in Riyadh (the Saudi capital) tried this and they all drove their cars to the equivalent of “City Hall.” They were apprehended, their husbands called to take them home, and they were told “the time is not right” because this was right after Desert Storm–they had seen the American female soldiers drive trucks and they wanted to be free to drive in their own country too–they all had drivers’ licenses from America, England, France and other countries they had lived in or visited. Of course, there never was a “right time” later. You have no idea what daily living in that country is like. When you see Arabs in other countries, they’re not behaving as they have to if they lived in Saudi.
March 9th, 2008 at 11:50 pm